Oct 04, 2002 If you have a wrist watch, and the only number on the movement is a three digit number in the range of 500-999, then there is no serial number. You may be able to get some limited information by entering the query 'g=number' (where number is replaced with the 3 digit number). Identifying antique pocket watches by Elgin. An Elgin pocket watch usually has two serial numbers. One is on the inner movement of the watch, and the other is on the case. The number on the inner movement tells you when the watch was made. After you learn to interpret the serial numbers, you can determine the age, type, grade, and quality of. Elgin National Watch Company Serial Number, Elgin pocket watch. Elgin National Watch Company. In the spring of 1864 half a dozen ambitious Chicago businessmen decided that if Massachusetts could build a factory that built watches – Illinois could, too. Harper’s magazine summed their sentiment perfectly: “It was the genuine. Use this table to identify the serial number on the internal movement of your El. See full list on elginwatches.org.
Elgin National Watch Company
In the spring of 1864 half a dozen ambitious Chicago businessmen decided that if Massachusetts could build a factory that built watches – Illinois could, too. Harper’s magazine summed their sentiment perfectly: “It was the genuine, audacious, self-reliant Western spirit.” By August of that year this consortium, including then-Chicago mayor Benjamin W. Raymond, purchased an abandoned farm 30 miles north of Chicago and built a watch factory there. After a year of designing and building the lathes and machines to achieve seemingly impossible levels of precision, a team of watchmakers and mechanical engineers produced their first pocket watch movement, named for mayor “B.W. Raymond.” The watch was exquisite: Elgin National Watch Company was born.
By 1910, word of Elgin’s obsession with precision had spread around the world. Elgin engineers built their own Observatory to maintain scientifically precise times in their watches. Later, their accurate “wristlet” watches proved to be vital to the WWI war effort, helping to fuel a craze back in the states for something called “The Wrist Watch.” By the opulent Jazz Age, if you weren’t displaying the exuberant symmetry of an Elgin wrist watch or carrying a svelte, distinctive Elgin pocket watch, then who were you? Elgin had helped define the American pocket watch as unsurpassed in “Railroad Accuracy.” By 1930, the post Civil War dream factory imagined by a handful of American entrepreneurs had produced 32 million “time machines.”
During World War II, all civilian manufacturing was halted and the company moved into the defense industry, manufacturing military watches, chronometers, fuses for artillery shells, altimeters and other aircraft instruments and sapphire bearings used for aiming cannons.
While their altruism was vital to the war effort, Elgin’s patriotism ironically opened an opportunity for the Swiss. By 1964, after a Mid-Century decade that saw the rise of the elite “Lord and Lady Elgin” series, the original Elgin factory closed. Over the course of a century, the dream factory just north of Chicago had produced half of all jeweled pocket and wristwatches manufactured in the United States.
The legendary Elgin watch has become woven into the fabric of America:
- Robert Johnson, pre-eminent Delta bluesman, sang “She’s got Elgin movements from her head down to her toes” in his 1936 recording of “Walkin’ Blues”.
- NBA Hall of Famer Elgin Baylor was named after the Elgin National Watch Company.
- Daniel Beard’s sketches of an angel at the end of A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court are based on the Elgin National Watch Company’s logo.
- The Steeleye Span album Bloody Men contains a track titled “Lord Elgin”: ostensibly a love song, it is, in fact, about the Lord Elgin Watch.
- Elgin Watch Company is referenced in the video game L.A. Noire, which takes place in post-World War II Los Angeles.
Production Year
Approximate date the movement of a watch is produced. Factory records differ
from year-to-year and factory-to-factory. Some records are more complete than
others. For this reason, many factory production dates are approximate.
Size
System developed and agreed-upon by American watch manufacturers to
determine the diameter of a watch movement. The larger the number, the larger
the diameter of the movement. The numbers used for American watch movement
sizing have no correlation to the actual measurement of the piece.
Jewels
Only jewels have a surface hard and perfect enough to allow metal parts to turn
unceasingly year after year with a minimum of wear and friction. Jewels also hold
the microscopic droplets of oil that lubricate each tiny pivot point. Raw jewels
alone cost little; it’s their incredibly precise finish and their perfect positioning in
the watch that give them value and make your watch run so dependably. While
a certain number of jewels are necessary at vital points, an increase beyond this
number does not always mean an increase in watch quality.
Grade
The grade of a movement is the identification of the level of quality to which it is
finished, generally reflecting the amount of labor that went into them. There is
some relationship to the cost of materials, but the greater cost was the labor to
finish and adjust the parts to the precision necessary for good timekeeping and,
to a lesser extent, the pleasing appearance of the movement. For cases, the
value of the material was a much greater proportion, with some extra labor going
into engraved designs.
Grading can be increased/decreased by adding jewels, damascening or adding
levels of adjustment.
Model
Much like the model of a car, the model of a watch movement indicates the style
of the piece and the level of labor and jeweling that went into the movement.
Model names and numbers are used to determine railroad eligibility use and level
of construction. Models names can be words or numbers.
Class
An internal notation used by a watch factory to note the level of production and
type of a watch movement. This category can be used to note subtle differences
between models and grades.
Run Quantity
Because special tooling and manufacturing techniques are required for
each model and grade of movement, mechanisms are produced in groups called “runs.” A run can consist of a hundred or less up to tens of thousands per group. The total run quantity of a model or grade is the complete number assembled before the factory ceased production of that model.
Movement Configuration
The movement configuration of a watch identifies whether it was manufactured
to go in a hunting case – a watch case with a cover that opens when the crown
is pushed; or, whether it is designed for use in an open-face case, which has no
cover.
Movement Setting
The setting of a watch movement notes how the hands of the watch are moved
to align with the correct time. Early watches hands were “set” by using a key to
turn them; later, watches were set by pulling out the crown; turning it until the
hands gestured to the proper time, then pushing in the crown. For railroad use, a
watch should be “lever set”: A hidden lever located in a small slot near the edge
of the dial must be pulled out before the hands can be adjusted. This safeguard
was developed to protect watches from having their hands jostled out of time
accidentally.
Movement Finish
The movement finish of a watch traditionally refers to its appearance: color,
metal or decoration. A “gilt” finish is, in effect, gold-plated. A “nickel” finish means
the solid nickel plates of the watch are polished. A “nickel damascened” finish
means the nickel plates are brushed or decorated by hand or machine, thereby
increasing the grade and value of the movement.
Plate
A watch movement is constructed so that wheels are held between “bridges”
or “plates.” Some movements are full-plate, meaning they are two plates of
metal with gears between them. Other movements may be “three quarter” plate,
meaning there plates sandwiching the gears have an open space or gap in them.
A “bridge” movement is a mechanism with thin fingers or “bridges” holding one
end of the pivot, exposing most of the internal workings of the movement to be
seen.
Barrel
The barrel of a movement is the area containing its mainspring.plain barrel: i.e.
without teeth, used in fusee watches and clocks. A chain, or cord, was wound
around the plain barrel, connecting it to the fusee.
Going barrel is the form used in modern watches, is wound by turning the arbor
and drives the watch movement by a ring of teeth around the barrel. This enables
the mainspring to continue running the watch while it is being wound. Invented by
Jean-Antoine Lépine.
A “hanging barrel” is a version of the going barrel that is supported by the
movement only at its upper end – a space-saving design.
A “motor” or “safety barrel” is used in pocket watches around 1900, a reverse
variant of the going barrel in which the spring is wound by turning the barrel, and
turns the watch movement by the central arbor. The purpose of this arrangement
was that if the spring breaks, destructive recoil forces would not be applied to the
vulnerable gear train.
Elgin Pocket Watch Serial Numbers Value
Adjusted
An “adjusted” movement is one that is finished or specially “tuned” at the factory
for certain applications. There are eight possible adjustments:
• Dial up
• Dial down
• Pendant up
• Pendant down
• Pendant left
• Pendant right
• Temperature (from 34–100 degrees Fahrenheit)
• Isochronism (the ability of the watch to keep time, regardless of the
mainspring’s level of tension).
Positional adjustments are attained by careful poising (ensuring even weight
distribution) of the balance-hairspring system as well as careful control of the
shape and polish on the balance pivots. All of this achieves an equalization of
the effect of gravity on the watch in various positions. Positional adjustments
are achieved through careful adjustment of each of these factors, provided by
repeated trials on a timing machine. Thus, adjusting a watch to position requires
many hours of labor, increasing the cost of the watch. Standard grade watches
were commonly adjusted to 3 positions (dial up, dial down, pendant up) while
higher grade watches were commonly adjusted to 5 positions (dial up, dial down,
stem up, stem left, stem right) or even all 6 positions. Railroad watches were
required, after 1908, to be adjusted to 5 positions. 3 positions were the general
requirement before that time.
Elgin Pocket Watch Cases
Marked For
Movements can be specially marked or engraved when produced for specific
customers or purposes. When they are “marked for” railroad service or a specific
railway, it can be noted in factory records. Also, when a clerk wished to note
something unusual about a run of movements, they might make notes here.